


Building a Home

by Redhead414



Series: Life is Beautiful [2]
Category: Schitt’s Creek
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-09 12:03:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20853122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redhead414/pseuds/Redhead414





	Building a Home

For their first wedding anniversary, Patrick gave his husband two gifts and a surprise. The first was a stack of paperwork, stating that both he and David were the owners of the building that housed Rose Apothecary. The second gift was a floor plan for the second floor of the apothecary. Designed by Patrick, it was an open concept working space where both could have their own desks and have collaborate workspace for meetings and vendor displays when viewing potential new products for the store. He even made sure Alexis had her own workspace, knowing full well that it was better to include her in the plan it was to try and accommodate after the fact.

The surprise required a walk, one which David loudly complained about because once they were outside the small apartment they shared, Patrick insisted on blindfolding him. David didn’t like surprises. Also – the last time he let someone blindfold him, it was after he consumed a handful of E and woke up the next day in nothing but a pair of underwear and shoes on the floor of a very unkempt apartment in Queens. 

“I would hope at this point you would trust me enough to never leave you,” Patrick teased, squeezing his husband’s hand as they walked.

“I can hear you enjoying my general sense of fear right now.”

“There’s nothing to be afraid of, David. I just want to surprise my husband.”

“I haven’t had these kinds of heart palpitations since our first open mic night.”

Patrick smiled. “And see – that was also a good surprise.”

David hummed, smiling as he remembered that day. “It was.”

They walked in silence for a bit, Patrick waiving to Bob and Ronnie, laughing silently with them as they pointed out David’s lack of sight. Reaching the corner of the block, Patrick gently tugged Patrick to make a right with him.

“It feels like we are walking toward Ted and Alexis’ house.”

“Does it?”

David stopped dead in his tracks. “You didn’t plan a surprise party, did you?”

“Of course I didn’t, David.”

“You know how I feel about surprise parties.”

Patrick saw Alexis and Ted standing in front of their destination, Alexis grinning from ear to ear as she held her son. Ted had his arm wrapped around his wife, giving Patrick a wave. 

“Uh Buh! Uh Buh!”

David turned his head, despite not being able to see. “I hear Bear.”

Patrick chuckled. “What makes you say that?”

“What other tiny person do you know that calls you ‘Uh Buh’?”

“I don’t know, David. What kind of person teaches a tiny person to call their husband ‘Uncle Button’?”

“You needed a fun uncle name. You said so yourself.”

“And how many M&Ms did it take you to get Teddy to learn ‘Uh Buh’?”

“Not nearly as many as I consumed while trying to teach him.”

Patrick stopped David on the sidewalk and untied the blindfold. David looked at the empty lot which was, in fact, next door to his sister and brother-in-law’s house. Ted and Alexis walked over, and David took Teddy from his sister mostly because the small child was nearly horizontal trying to get to him. “Hi Bear,” David said, using his nephew’s special nickname. “Your uncle blindfolded me and walked me to an empty lot. As an anniversary surprise!”

Teddy grinned, pulling his pacifier from his mouth. “Tio!” he exclaimed.

“That’s me,” David said, looking to the other three adults stood in front of the empty lot, three of them in on the secret looking as if they were ready to burst. “Ok…so is someone going to tell me what we’re all doing here? Because I didn’t eat lunch today and if I’m being honest – I’m too hungry to appropriately participate in a guessing game.”

Ted took a stack of three-fold paperwork out of his back pocket and handed it to David. “When I bought the vet clinic, this lot here came with it. And well, Alexis and I have decided that we are perfectly fine staying in the house attached to the clinic. We are going to expand a little bit on the back for the house, but the clinic is still the perfect size, and our house is great for our family of three.”

Alexis nodded earnestly in agreement. “So, Ted and I were talking, and then we talked to Patrick, and we know that you’ve been wanting to move out of your apartment for a while now. And we thought, what if you just built a house. Right here next to us? We can curate an adorable backyard area for both of us to share, for entertaining, and for our kids –”

“Kids?” David asked. “We don’t have kids, Alexis.”

“But you will,” Alexis said, alligator snapping her hands playfully at him. “And this way they can grow up together. The way you and I should have.”

David bit his lips together, blinking back some unexpected wetness building at the base of his eyelids. “Well…that sounds…very nice.”

“I’ve been looking forward to giving you this,” Ted said. “So, thanks a _lot_, for taking this off of our hands.”

Patrick and David laughed while shared a look, internally groaning at Ted’s pun.

***

Seven months later, the empty lot had been completely transformed. Trees and brush were cleared, making way for the gorgeous two-story house, complete with a full live-in basement, a back yard with a large patio area for entertaining, and a four-car garage that they would share with Ted and Alexis. David put Patrick in charge of the house logistics but had two requests that were non-negotiable. One was a walk-in closet that was at minimum half the size of their bedroom for all his clothes, shoes, and accessories. The other one was to turn the basement into essentially an in-law suite, so that when Clint and Marcy came to visit, they would have their own space. David knew he was a lot to take at times, and he adored Patrick’s parents. He never wanted them to feel like coming to see their son was an exhausting experience. He also wanted a place where he and Stevie could hide and get high when one or the other needed to destress. 

His in-laws were in town this week, helping Patrick put the finishing touches on the outside landscape. They helped a lot with the house quite a bit, as both Clint and Marcy were very much into the whole HGTV do it yourself projects. Patrick was also into building things, and David was happy for him to put his energy into the house. They had been talking about houses a few weeks after they were engaged, but they had yet to find anything. Real estate wasn’t exactly a booming enterprise in Schitt’s Creek. The last decent house that was up for sale was bought by David’s parents. 

Both David and Alexis were shocked that their parents willingly invested money into a house across the street from Roland and Jocelyn, but as Johnny pointed out – they could have moved to Elmdale and he’d still manage to see Roland every day. Moira justified it in the sense that she would be “in and out,” given her increasing appearance schedule in recent years. Johnny would accompany his wife when Alexis was unable to get away, or if the trip was slated to last more than 24 hours. 

While Patrick and his in-laws were working on the yard, David was at the shop, working on decorating the atelier space. He couldn’t wait to start meeting current and prospective clients in this space. The natural light that came in through three of the four walls was perfect, and with the same design aesthetic from downstairs in the space, it made David feel like his store was complete.

“Knock knock!”

He turned his head and saw Alexis walk in, putting Teddy down and dropping her oversized tote onto the floor. “Fancy seeing you here on a Saturday.”

“Ted’s over at your place helping Patrick and your in-laws,” Alexis explained. “And I started to feel guilty for not helping, but it’s not like I was going to be a really big help, and so you know, I decided to come see what you were doing.”

David smiled. “I’m basically here for the same reason. My strengths do not lie in manual labor.”

Teddy toddled around the open space, investigating this new area. David watched him with a grin, waiting patiently for him to find the surprise his Uncle Patrick left him. 

“Is it ok that he’s walking back there?” Alexis asked. “I don’t want him to like, break anything.”

“It’s fine,” David replied. “Besides, Patrick insisted this was also a child-friendly space.”

“Hep!”

David laughed, squatting down to see Teddy pulling on a black fabric basket. “What did you find?”

Teddy tugged on the basket handle again. “Ocks, Tio! Ocks!”

“Uh Buh got you those,” David said, now on his hands and knees. He crawled over and helped his nephew pull the blocks out to the middle of the floor.

“Mommy! Ocks!”

“I see, Teddy Bear!” Alexis exclaimed. “Your Uncle Button is just the cutest button.” 

“We saw them a few weeks ago at a local art fair on our way back from the doctor’s appointment in Toronto,” David explained. “They promised they weren’t stained with anything toxic. Patrick asked.”

“Of course he did,” Alexis said. “Speaking of – how’s the surrogate thing going?”

“Gestational surrogate,” David corrected. 

“Whatever. You like, like her, right?”

“Patrick likes her,” David definitively answered. They had met several times and so far and attended all the appointments, including the IVF implantation ten days ago. “I like no one.”

“Obviously, David, but like - you need to probably at least kind of like her, right?”

David shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, Alexis. Yes. Probably. I mean, I don’t dislike her. I don’t understand anyone who would willingly get pregnant with someone else’s baby, but apparently it’s a thing.”

“But if it wasn’t,” Alexis pointed out. “You and your little button face husband wouldn’t be able to have button faced babies that will be so cute!” She walked over to her desk and opened a browser on her computer and fired up her email. While she was here, Alexis figured she may as well get a few things done. 

“One of those faces may look like one of us,” he reminded his sister. 

“They will be buttons in their own way, David.” 

David went back to his iPad on the large, tall black oak table in the center of the space. Teddy sat on the ground next to him, stacking and knocking blocks over with unbridled glee. He was reviewing new items to potentially start selling in the store, mostly of the tiny person variety. If he and Patrick were going to have children, he figured branching out into more child friendly store items would boost sales. If Teddy taught him anything, its than adults have little restraint on spending when it comes to children.

He was sucked into this wooden Montessori toy collection when Alexis snapped his attention to her. 

“Oh my God, David!” Alexis said. “Like – have you seen some of these surrogate stories on the internet?” 

“Patrick has forbidden me to look,” David interjected. “My imagination I’m sure will take me to a much a darker place than any of those stories on the Internet. 

“That’s probably a good idea,” Alexis stated definitively. “Because these stories are like, not good, David.”

A part of David wished Alexis could be the gestational surrogate. But once Patrick got David on board with this plan, David insisted they get a lawyer and it was determined that they would pick an egg donor, use a gestational surrogate, so that when their child was born both he and Patrick would be the only two that could legally claim the child and subsequent siblings. David knew he could be a shade short of a doomsday prepper at times, but he refused to see his husband look as sad as he did they day the adoption didn’t go through. Absolutely refused. He wanted all his bases covered, as Patrick would say. 

“There’s apparently some website called ‘golden eggs,’ or something like that where apparently only eggs from women deemed exceptional in various life areas,” David told her, the tacky words sounding more disgusting as the day he stumbled upon the website. He was so appalled he shouted for Patrick in such a panic that Patrick raced out of the shower, hastily wrapping a towel around him with soap still in his hair.

_“Do you see this!” David exclaimed. _

_“Are you ok! Are you bleeding?”_

_“What? No? Why would I be bleeding?” David asked, confused as he held his iPad screen so Patrick could see. “I found this…disgusting website that talks about harvesting eggs from women who only meet certain beauty standards. It’s like they’re breeding the next generation of Instagram influencers, which really just wind up being dirty skanks taking photos of themselves on yachts, making Alexis’ time spent trapped in Dubai with that insane oil baron look like a trip to Disney!”_

_Patrick used his forearm to push soap suds away from his brow line. “Sweetheart, I thought I told you that you could have the iPad back as long as you stopped looking up this stuff. We used a reputable agency and found a very nice surrogate.”_

_“But Patrick –”_

_He walked over, cupped his hands on David’s face, and pressed a firm kiss to his husband’s lips. “I love you. I know you’re worried, and I love you for it. But I’m going to go wash the rest of the soap out of my hair. And you are going to remember that you are not allowed to shout for me in a way that makes me think you’ve lost a hand. We’ve talked about this.”_

_“But –”_

_“I’m also taking the iPad. You’re grounded.”_

_David went to argue some more but couldn’t find the words once Patrick removed his towel just close enough to the bedroom door to give him a glimpse of his bare backside._

“Ew, David,” Alexis said with a shudder. “That sounds like, the worst.”

“Horrifying,” David agreed. 

Teddy walked to his mom, having stopped at her bag along the way to find his container of cheerios. “Eat?” he asked. “Bite?”

Alexis pulled her son into her lap and opened the container. Teddy’s little hands barreled into the bowl, and a fistful made its way into his mouth.

“Ew Teddy! Don’t put too many in your little mouth. You’ll choke!” Alexis lightly scolded. Ted and Alexis came back from the Galapagos Island adventure engaged and found themselves six weeks later holding a positive pregnancy test that belonged to Alexis this time. Actually, David found himself and Alexis looking at the pink plus sign first. He forced her to take the test after she spent almost every day throwing up in the bathroom once they were back. She was convinced she had some island virus. David, on the other hand, doubted than an island virus caused such a violent reaction to balsamic vinegar dressing from the cafe three days in a row. 

Alexis closed out the browser tab of horrifying surrogate stories and looked up at her brother. “You know,” his sister said with a sympathetic look. “I wish I could you know…help with this. But this little guy right here was just…it was just so hard, David.” She lightly bopped the end of her son’s nose and smiled. “Worth every second of feeling like I was hung over like that time in Thailand, only feeling like that every day - but definitely never doing it again.”

Hard was a gross understatement. Alexis was sick most of her pregnancy. The only small joy in that is it allowed her to compare her to Kate Middleton and reminisce about her time spent in Windsor the summer she dated Prince Harry. Her pregnancy stressed David out more than all the times he had to answer an SOS from her on her many disastrous overseas adventures. 

Their parents were there and tried to help, but their skills were still decently stunted in that parental arena. Not to mention that Moira’s appearance schedule was increasing, and Johnny accompanied Moira with Alexis unable to travel. Ted’s mother moved to Vancouver with her yoga instructor and his stepdad was down in Florida with his new wife. This left David, Patrick, Stevie, and in a pinch - Jocelyn - helping Alexis. Around the six-month mark, it was so bad David called his mother-in-law in a panic one day, and three hours later both Clint and Marcy walked right into the shop, ready to help. 

His in-laws spent so much time in Schitt’s Creek helping with the last three months of Alexis’ pregnancy that both Ted and Alexis asked Clint and Marcy if they would be another set of grandparents for Teddy, along with Johnny and Rose. Marcy was so excited that she turned one of the spare bedrooms in their old farmhouse into a room just for Teddy. In his short time on earth, Teddy had spent many a weekend at his Mimi and Grandpa’s house.

David wrote down a few more notes about the Montessori toys and dropped his pen. “So…do you think we are safe to go home yet?” he asked. “Because the sheers I ordered for the front room windows should have arrived by now, and I really want to see if I made a bad decision by going with them instead of the printed panels.”

Alexis glanced at her watch. “Well, even if it isn’t, we can always say that we can’t help with the flowers…and dirt stuff…because Teddy will want to help, and we will need to distract him by playing in the backyard. Oh! Ted hung the swings on the playset this morning!” 

The play structure for the backyard had been a very contentious conversation between the four of them, as they could not find one that David did not find “aesthetically repulsive.” Thankfully, Clint was able to sketch out a design and introduced David to an entire section in Lowe’s that would allow David to pick out wood stain and paint specifically for outdoor projects so they could find a compromise that they could build themselves. There was a playhouse, complete with a swing set, slide, and a sandbox with a hardtop cover Clint not only made himself but promised David that if it was put on properly, would keep animals out of it. The last thing David wanted was random critters in the neighborhood using his backyard like their own private toilet.

David picked up the blocks and put them back in their designated space and packed his work up into his leather backpack Patrick got him his past year. 

“Up Tio! Up!”

He feigned annoyance, but grinned as he looped his arms into his backpack straps before scooping up his nephew. Teddy gave his nephew a wrinkled nose blink, looking just like his mother before resting his head on David’s shoulder.

“I have his stroller downstairs,” Alexis said as they left the atelier. “Not that he likes it anymore, the little rascal. Flailed about like a little…unruly fish all the way here. Didn’t you, you cute little Teddy Bear?”

Teddy swatted his mom’s hand away with a laugh as David gave his weekend staff member, Kyle, a wave goodbye. Alexis dropped her tote in Teddy’s stroller seat and the two began to walk the short four blocks back to their homes. Fall was around the corner, and David was ready for the cooler temperatures. Last fall, Patrick and Ted introduced David and Alexis to smores and fire pits, and the two brothers-in-law watched as their respective spouses reacted as if they had been shown the keys to eternal happiness. Even better was when David found a YouTube video on how to make smores in the microwave. It didn’t have the same fiery crispiness on the marshmallow, but it was still delicious if you didn’t leave the marshmallow in there for more than 4-5 seconds. 

The first time he tried it, he microwaved it for what he thought was a conservative 30 seconds and had to immediately call Marcy in a panic to ask how to get melted marshmallow out of the microwave before Patrick came home. Afterwards, he swore his mother-in-law to secrecy. Unlike Stevie, who would always swear not to tell Patrick embarrassing things that David did but would tell anyway on their text message thread David was often reminded he did not have access to, Marcy would never tell.

“You know, you’re very good with him.”

David looked over at Alexis as they walked. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I mean, I know you’re nervous about this whole parenting thing, and like, you always say you hate babies and kids –”

“Because I do,” David defended himself. “Except for my Bear, of course. The rest of them are just…gross.”

Alexis grinned. “And why do you think Teddy is the exception?”

“Um, obviously because it would be incredibly rude to hate my nephew?”

“You love him _because_ he is your nephew, David.”

David rolled eyes. 

“You’re going to feel the same way about your own kids, too,” Alexis promised as they rounded the corner block. “I mean, it’s what everyone said to me, and I of course didn’t believe it. I was scared just like you are. But they put him on me, you know, and even though he was really gross and slimy at first, the moment we locked eyes I knew he was worth like, every sleeve of saltine crackers I consumed.”

He could feel Teddy getting heavy in his arms, usually signaling that he was on his way to falling asleep. He rubbed a gentle hand on his back. “If we are being honest…” he said, spotting Clint and Patrick raking mulch around the boxwoods in the front yard. “I’m not so much afraid of the whole parenting thing as I am of something going wrong and us not getting to be parents. Again.” David tilted his head back and forth, as if that would keep his eyes from excessively watering. “It was very dark, Alexis.”

Alexis nodded sympathetically. “I know, David. What happened with the whole adoption thing was like, really, really awful. But I have to believe that this will be better. And I like this whole, surrogate thing better than the adoption thing anyway. Knowing that you’ll have a kid that’s half button face, and then another kid that’s half you…or half you first and then another kid that’s half button face…whatever way it happens, I think it’s more special this way.”

David nodded quickly and Alexis gave him a reassuring blink before crossing the street. “I hope you’re right.”


End file.
